Things Parents Say That Make Your Cringe

[disneyfanfamily]

We were waiting for the parade - the NIGHT parade...I was so excited about it and was getting my kids all psyched up for it. Right when it almost starts, my 4 year old says she has to go to the bathroom...."No you dont..." I said. "Let's watch the parade. Cinderella will be here soon!" She kept saying she needed to go and I kept persuading her she didn't....until she was in tears. So I took her in a huff to the closest bathroom, telling her that she will probably miss Cinderella. Well, that made her cry even more....I realized that I was being ridiculous...Sometimes we want our kids to experience everything in such a perfect way, that we make them miss the experience. I apologized. Alot....And she did miss Cinderella. She wouldn't have if I would have taken her pottie the first time she asked. So we stayed late the next day and watched the parade.

Moral: Potty breaks, spills, etc. are not a big deal unless we make a big deal of it. They're kids. Hopefully I will have this parenting thing down by the time I have grandchildren!

 

[Madi100]

We were at Downtown Disney Monday night around 10pm. We walked by this little boy who was leaning against a building and sobbing, he must have been five or so. We stopped and told him it would be okay, that we would find his parents. My cousin alerted a CM around the corner.
We started looking around and after a minute or two spotted a man about 50 feet away, standing with his arms crossed and smiling widely, just watching us. The little boy was reaching towards him and just crying his little heart out. The man did not move. I guess he thought it was FUNNY that his little guy looked like he was lost, but really wasn't.
I walked up to him and said I thought he was more immature than his 5yo son and what he was doing was not funny. I also said one day the wrong person would come along and he'd either get arrested for child neglect or the kid would get snatched. He was too far away to do anything if anyone had it in their mind to do that. He just continued to smile and laugh as if the whole thing was a great big joke while his poor son cried and cried.

It ruined my night.
Some people should just not be parents.

In defense of this person, and I wasn't there, so I dont' know for sure, but I was tempted to let my daughter get lost while we were there. She is almost five, and it was easier to keep track of her when we took her when she was three. She just wanted to run all over the place. She didn't ever want to hold our hand, because she's a big girl. She just had absolutely no concept that if she runs ahead it could be possible for her to get lost. We were in the RFC giftshop, and I was looking at a shirt. I turned around and she was gone. I looked around and didn't see her. I was just getting ready to get frantic when she walked up. She didn't realize that she was lost. She was looking at something else. We were very tempted to just let her lose sight of us so that she realized how scary it can be. We would have never let her stand there and cry. We would have let it go on just long enough for her to realize that she couldn't see us anymore. So, I think it's horrible that the dad stood there and laughed. But, believe me, we were very frustrated by the end of our week with our daugther's ability to stay with us.

 

[zachnlucy]

For my oldest son's 6th birthday (15 years ago), I skipped work and he skipped school and we spent the day at WDW (our first time, we had just moved to Tampa). He was dying to ride Space Mountain but was about an inch too short. I decided that if the CM let us on, I would let him. As we were walking up the line, people kept chastising me for letting him ride. I just grinned and said it was his birthday. Well the CM did let him on and we rode that sucker 5 or 6 times in a row, each time with the same remarks from other parents. By the time we were finished, I was soooooo sick. Ah, well. My son (who is now 21) still talks about that day being the best birthday he ever had.

 

[lucyanna girl]

Last June DD and I overheard a Father screaming at a little boy of about 3. He towered over the sobbing little boy telling him "It's not all about YOU! This is my vacation too and I want to do what I want to". Duh, mister. This is WDW and that is a child - it IS all about him.

 

[#1MMFan]

Last month, my mom, sister and I decided to have breakfast over at POR. We had stayed there several times a number of years ago, and they make the best pancakes!! While we were sitting in the food court overlooking the boats moored we heard a father sitting several tables away repeatedly yelling at his three kids, not one of whom would have been older than 6. I think his daughter was maybe 6 (at most) and he had two boys who were maybe 2 and 4. Well, next thing, we HEAR (from about 20ft away) the thud as he whacks one of the boys who immediately starts screaming. Then the other little boy drops some of his cereal on the floor. WHACK. I think the poor girl was thinking she was going to be next. The mother was sadly a lot younger than the father (she looked like she could have been only early 20s). I was also appalled that the father was wearing a NYPD cap or T-shirt (I don't recall) but I just thought "I hope you don't truly work in the police force". If it hadn't been for the facts it wasn't my home country, and the guy was about twice my size, I would have been over there and would have been reporting him. My family has never seen any child being hit so violently. We saw them again in the Emporium in MK later that day, and my family and I made some loud remarks about his behaviour; I hope he heard, but sadly I think he was the type of guy who was arrogant enough to ignore our comments.

 

[Lucky4me]

In defense of this person, and I wasn't there, so I dont' know for sure, but I was tempted to let my daughter get lost while we were there. She is almost five, and it was easier to keep track of her when we took her when she was three. She just wanted to run all over the place. She didn't ever want to hold our hand, because she's a big girl. She just had absolutely no concept that if she runs ahead it could be possible for her to get lost. We were in the RFC giftshop, and I was looking at a shirt. I turned around and she was gone. I looked around and didn't see her. I was just getting ready to get frantic when she walked up. She didn't realize that she was lost. She was looking at something else. We were very tempted to just let her lose sight of us so that she realized how scary it can be. We would have never let her stand there and cry. We would have let it go on just long enough for her to realize that she couldn't see us anymore. So, I think it's horrible that the dad stood there and laughed. But, believe me, we were very frustrated by the end of our week with our daugther's ability to stay with us.

I know all about kids running ahead. My dd wanted to be 10 feet ahead at all times, drove us nuts when she was little. I had nightmares about losing her at Disney. I think in this case they had the little guy out too late and he was exhausted. There is no excuse for that and then tormenting him by making him stand there with no one around. My cousin told me she thought he was much younger than 5, maybe 3 or even younger. It really made us sick that he thought it was humorous to make people think his son was lost.

This was my first trip without kids. I can't believe how many ridiculous things we heard parents saying to their children. I'd never noticed before, possibly because I was too busy saying ridiculous things to mine.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

I was also appalled that the father was wearing a NYPD cap or T-shirt (I don't recall) but I just thought "I hope you don't truly work in the police force".

Your story is just so sad. But to clarify the cap/t-shirt issue, since 9/11 street vendors hawk those items to the tourists every day. The NYPD is wonderful (and yes I know you are not bashing them). Unfortunately, every Tom, Dick and Harry can now wear NYPD and NYFD items. I just wish they would have saved that priviledge for the people that actually risk their lives.

Back OT, my DM was with us during one trip and took my DD to the bathroom. She came out almost in tears and DM is made of hearty stock. There was another DGM in there with her DGD and she was screaming at her for not finishing quickly enough for her. The little girl was crying and the woman kept getting angrier. How sad that people don't realize what they sound like. I wish we videotape bad parents and force them to sit and watch themselves. Or at least have someone bigger and meaner treat them the same way to see how it feels.

 

[Cbarr]

Once when DH and I were in WDW about 10 yrs ago, there was a woman and her DS (he looked about 9yo) checking into the hotel. From the comments she was making to the hotel clerk and her DS we could tell she was recently divorced. She was so rude and loud-mouthed and was complaining about everything under the sun meanwhile yelling at her DS for anything he did. At one point we heard her say to her poor kid "you better start showing some respect...I"M ALL YOU"VE GOT!"

We felt so bad for the poor child, not only were his parents recently divorced which is traumatic enough for a kid, but he's got a witch of a mother rubbing it in!

 

[mattsdragon]

The day we arrived in WDW for our honeymoon, we got in the concierge line at the hotel (stupid me, I forgot to put park hopper on our tickets, so I needed to do an upgrade). Well, the lady in front of us what starting all sorts of problems with the poor counter worker. I looked at my wife and we both rolled our eyes, we knew her "type".

Well, the next day, we got in line behind her family for the bus to AK. And she was on already, this early. After causing her kid (son, about 4yo) to start crying, her husband picked him up. The mother then said "don't pick him up, if he doesn't stop, we'll just go back to the room". The kid then slapped the father across the face.

We couldn't decide who we would deck first if we were the husband, the wife or the kid.

And I'm constanly amazed with the people who try to discuss things with a young child.

 

[safetymom]

I rode the monorail yesterday with a very nasty mother and father. They were telling someone else how bad their child was and didn't appreciate that he was at Disney again. Kept going on and on about how bad he was. Said he acted like a little girl, that they should send him away to school dressed as a girl with a pink dress and pink shoes. When they finally got off the monorail they walked ahead and never once looked back to see if the son was still with them. I felt so bad for the little kid.

 

[eblack0409]

DH and I were in line waiting to ride Spaceship Earth and this boy about 10 or 11 years old was throwing an enormous fit about riding....even thought I agreed completely with his dad telling him he was acting like a 5 year old....I don't think him picking up his son and putting him in the seat was absolutely appropriate.....he kept screaming that he wanted off...it ruined the entire ride!

DH and I agreed that when we have kids, we won't be taking them to WDW until they are old enough to walk the parks with us....I saw so many parents that looked absolutely miserable pushing stollers and carrying kids around....one lady even said as we were standing in line waiting to catch the bus back to POP that she wasn't bringing her daughter back until she was old enough to appreciate it and old enough to walk it...the stroller was just too much to handle.

 

[lucincia]

DH and I were in line waiting to ride Spaceship Earth and this boy about 10 or 11 years old was throwing an enormous fit about riding....even thought I agreed completely with his dad telling him he was acting like a 5 year old....I don't think him picking up his son and putting him in the seat was absolutely appropriate.....he kept screaming that he wanted off...it ruined the entire ride!

DH and I agreed that when we have kids, we won't be taking them to WDW until they are old enough to walk the parks with us....I saw so many parents that looked absolutely miserable pushing stollers and carrying kids around....one lady even said as we were standing in line waiting to catch the bus back to POP that she wasn't bringing her daughter back until she was old enough to appreciate it and old enough to walk it...the stroller was just too much to handle.

Hate to make comments in this thread - but just want to point out something. A lot's of parents have done WDW with infants and toddlers and strollers and most of them enjoyed the parks (we did last week). If you want to do the parks commando style, then, yeah, no way. And that's not just WDW. Try doing commando in a mall with kids and strollers and you will not enjoy yourself.

It's not Disney. It's how people live their vacations.

 

[frayedend]

Some of these stories are so sad. I dont know why some poeple have children... If you know that having children is just a burden to you why dont you just get fixed and not have any????

It is a huge pet peeve of mine to see things like this at wdw... I cant fathom why parents would take their children there and then behave that way.And if you want to ride all the rides then leave your kids with the grand parents or something.

As a parent the tough thing is that reading these posts you hear complaints about parents that do nothing to discipline their kids and about parents that discipline their kids. Things like "I can't believe they just let the kids run around like that" and then again, "I can't believe they told the kid to sit down and shut up". Short of abuse, I don't think anyone can really have good judgement on how a situation should be handled by the parents except the parents. They are the only one that knows everything that leads to a certain situation.

 

[missypie]

We had the pleasure of visiting Disneyland Paris in 2004. One of the most delightful aspects of the experience was NOT being able to understand what most of the parents were saying to their children!

 

[ErinSLP]

just to cheer everyone up after reading all these upsetting posts..... Both times my husband and I visited WDW, we really enjoyed watching the WONDERFUL parents who were ALL ABOUT making the vacation memorable. For the life of me, I can't even remember seeing or hearing anything that upset me, I guess I just blocked it out of my mind!! But I do remember every where we went, admiring happy families with happy kids. I guess when I'm in Disney, I only seem to focus on the good things, which is why I love it there so much. In my normal, every day life, I often only see the bad things, but not at Disney. On our last trip in Feb 2004, we were so envious of all the families with adorable children, that we decided to start a family of our own. Now this Jan, we will be taking our little Princess on her first trip to the world. We can't wait!!!!

 

[MinnesotaChill]

I did something last week that I'm sure would have ended up on here if someone besides a valet had seen it! Last Monday my sister got married at Sea Breeze Point at the BW at 1pm. One of my sons, a ring bearer had thrown up all night prior to the wedding. Because I had a very nervous stomach when I was a kid, we attributed it to nerves. He was so excited to be in the wedding it was all he could talk about! We also had reservations for the Sandcastle Club that night after dinner so we could cap off the wedding with an evening of dancing at Atlantic. The wedding goes beautifully, no illness, all is well except he wants to sleep all day. We promise him that after dinner he can sleep at the babysitting club. So we get to the BC and he gets out of the van and promptly vomits in a bed of flowers. I looked at my husband, and two wedding guests who were with us. We have to meet my parents and the bride or she will kill me. She's not carrying a purse with her wedding getup. The other kids want to go to the club, the valet is looking at us like "surely you aren't considering dropping him off, right?" Before I could say anything, my husband asks ds how he feels now. Kid says, "great, can we go in?" DH says, "sure!" Off we go. I was so embarrassed I couldn't look at the valet. I said to the other woman, " I hope the valet thinks you are the terrible mother!"

DS RUNS to the club and can't wait to play. Ok, I figured he got car sick after a long day and being sick the night before, but man did I feel terrible. I rationalized that no one can have a flu that is on and off like that, had to be something else. Well, after all of that, we get to Atlantic and it is closed anyway. Go back and pick up the kids, who had a ball. Get home and find out there is indeed a virus going around that is on and off for four days. Don't worry, the club was empty both when we dropped the kids off and when we picked them up, so no one else was exposed.

I am a terrible mother!

 

[Geubux]

We were at the parks two weeks ago and anyone who saw me would have thought I was a terrible dad. My 11 year old ds had brought his friend on this trip and my son had been slowly getting a little wild. After Fantasmic, we had bought popcorn that he and his friend were to share, but my son just had to push it. They were both a little tired, but my ds thought it would be funny if he ate most of the popcorn in a few minutes. I caught him with a mouthful, and I do mean full of corn and a huge fist full. I told him to chew and swallow the mouthful, but I did not yell since I am making a point to not publicly embarrass my kids by yelling. I then slapped the popcorn out of his hand and told him he was finished. (sorry to the cleaning crew). I walked with him and told him in a low voice that his behavior was unacceptable and I was fed up with the way he had acted at times that week. He was mad thru Osborn. We rode the boat to BW and then He and I went to see the Epcot fireworks from the bridge. I told him all the good things he had done that week but that the bad things were out of place and not acceptable, then, we dropped it. On the way back to the room, we stood and watched the street jugglers on the boardwalk and had a good time. I guess that was a father-son moment. I still told my wife I hate myself for having to get after the kids like that, but sometimes, they need brought back to earth. It still bothers me and I am sure glad we got to share some private time together after that.

 

[Madi100]

As a parent the tough thing is that reading these posts you hear complaints about parents that do nothing to discipline their kids and about parents that discipline their kids. Things like "I can't believe they just let the kids run around like that" and then again, "I can't believe they told the kid to sit down and shut up". Short of abuse, I don't think anyone can really have good judgement on how a situation should be handled by the parents except the parents. They are the only one that knows everything that leads to a certain situation.

I completely agree with you. It's very easy to see the "bad" stuff. And then it's very easy to assume that they are horrible parents. I have read enough threads on here about "horrible parenting" that I think that I really try to respect the people around me and try not to think the worst of them when they parent. I don't care if you are at the happiest place on earth. There are just some times when children misbehave, and saying, "Oh, boy. We're having fun," is not going to cut it.

 

[lucincia]

I completely agree with you. It's very easy to see the "bad" stuff. And then it's very easy to assume that they are horrible parents. I have read enough threads on here about "horrible parenting" that I think that I really try to respect the people around me and try not to think the worst of them when they parent. I don't care if you are at the happiest place on earth. There are just some times when children misbehave, and saying, "Oh, boy. We're having fun," is not going to cut it.

Misbehaving is one thing. But, some of the things that these parents say take the cake. But, then again, I am pretty sure I said some obnoxious things when I get frustrated with my own kids at times. Hopefully not too many people overheard those comments!

This thread is not a judgement of parenting skills, but rather listing what you have overheard that surprised you. It can be useful for some of us since it shows another point of view that we may not realize when we're in the parenting mode.

One thing that I found myself say several times during our WDW trip was "if you whine again, we're going back to the room". That usually shut them up really quickly. If overheard by someone, I am pretty sure I can be labeled as a bad parent

 

[TastefullyChris]

DH and I went to WDW on our honeymoon 15 yrs. ago and marveled at all the parents loaded down with camcorders, strollers, diaper bags and all the other kid paraphanalia. The capper was breakfast at our hotel (GF...glad we did it then...could never afford it now!). A large family (mom/dad and 3 or 4 kids) were at the next table. Lots of confusion over ordering/getting situated, etc. Nothing obnoxious, just typical for a family. Suddenly their little boy spills his glass of milk! It is running all over the table, down the edge, dripping into the mom's purse/diaper bag. The dad just explodes! "Dammit! What have I told you kids!?! We MUST ESTABLISH A RULE!!!" He proceeds to outline the plan to avoid future spills, demonstrating a perimeter out of reach of each child...this is the area where drinks should be placed!!! DH and I are cracking up...giggling like when you are struck with something funny at church. Poor mom is busy mopping up...leave it to dad to "engineer" his way out of the mess!

Needless to say, this became our new catch-phrase for the trip. Anytime something went wrong..."We MUST ESTABLISH A RULE!!!" We (of course!) smugly SWORE we would NEVER take our kids to WDW until they were old enough to walk/behave/appreciate it.

Fast-forward...five years later, we brought our nearly 3-yr. old son and left our newborn home with Grandma & Grandpa. We spent the whole trip wishing we had brought the infant and left the whiny toddler at home! (BTW, the only reason we did go was because my cousin is a DVC member and asked us to join her family...no cost for the room and DS was free admission). We STILL giggled about ESTABLISHING A RULE!!!

NOW, our boys are 10 and 12 and we are finally taking our family dream trip (May '06). I'm sure I will let a few zingers slip, as they (and I) are far from perfect. Hopefully, no one will spill their milk.....